Definition of Love
by SolitaryFan
Summary: When Shannon finds a dictionary in some of the luggage, she starts to wonder just how much she knows about love...
1. Shannon Strikes

**AN: Okay, listen up people! I don't want Shannon and Sayid to be together on the show! The story idea just came to me and I had to write it! People out on the mesage board, don't hate me, please:)**

Definition of Love

Chapter 1- Shannon Strikes

_"Why God, why? Do you just hate me, or do you delight in making me miserable? Out of all the books in the world, you let me find the dictionary among the luggage. Well, that's just great! I'm sure I will be able to extend my vocabulary now that I have a dictionary on this crappy island. I mean, COME ON! The _dictionary?_ Thanks a lot!"_

Shannon's thoughts were less than sunny when she found a leather-bound dictionary while rooting through some of the suitcases. She felt like ripping it up and throwing it in the sea.

But she didn't. She ran her hand over the cracked cover, tracing the peeling gold letters on it. _"Hell, why not? Maybe if I get really, REALLY bored one day ?I can read it."_

Shannon's thoughts made her laugh out loud. Yeah right! Read the dictionary? Not in your life!

"What's so funny?" a familiar accented voice asked her.

Shannon whirled around to see Sayid standing behind her, looking slightly amused. She blushed.

"Uh, nothing. It's just that I found a dictionary in this suitcase." She gestured to the blue bag lying on the ground, it's contents spilling over the sides.

"A dictionary?" Sayid chuckled.

Shannon giggled "Yeah, weird, right?"

Sayid looked like he was about to say something, when-

"SHANNON! What are you doing?" Boone was walking across the sand, and he looked pissed.

"Where have you been? I told you to stay in your tent until I got back!"

Shannon scrambled to her feet, still clutching the dictionary "Sorry if I don't like being treated like a child!" she sneered.

Sayid knew a fight when he saw one, and this one was about to get ugly.

"Well, I gotta go….I just have to go!" he said nervously. But he may as well have been talking to the dictionary in Shannon's hands, because Boone and his sister were yelling at each other so loudly that they didn't hear him.

Sayid backed away and hurried back to the caves.

Shannon continued to shriek at her brother "You always ruin everything, Boone! Couldn't you see that Sayid and I were talking?"

"Yeah I did! That's why I came over here! I don't want you hanging around him, Shan! He's bad news."

"No, _you're_ bad news! Just stay out of my life, okay? I don't need you telling me what to do!"

"Hey, I've _always _looked out for you, you were just too self-centered to notice! That's what you are, a self-centered little bitch!"

BAM! Shannon slapped Boone across the face. "How dare you! You know, why don't you go play with Locke and LEAVE ME ALONE!"

With that, Shannon spun on her heel and stormed away, clearing a path through all the people that had been standing watching the fight.

_"The first word I'm looking up in my dictionary," _she thought furiously_ "is jackass!"_


	2. The New Shannon

Chapter Two: The New Shannon

Shannon stayed in her tent for the rest of the day, pouting. To her dismay, Boone's picture wasn't next to "jackass" in her newly acquired dictionary.

_"But it should be!" _she thought angrily_ "Who does he think he is, ordering me around?"_

Shannon pretended to be asleep when Boone came in with some boar meat for her dinner. She distinctly heard him mutter "lazy ass", but she had to resist the urge to kick him, because she was 'asleep'.

Early the next morning, Shannon sneaked out of her tent. As she had expected, Boone was asleep outside her tent, making sure no one went in during the night. Meaning he didn't want Sayid near Shannon at all times.

"Idiot." She mumbled to herself as she stole pass him.

Shannon ran down to the surf, letting the salty spray fly up into her face. She laughed at the pure joy of being somewhere that wasn't a mall or a bar, which where the only places she had ever gone with her "friends" back home.

"What are you laughing about now? Don't tell me you found more dictionaries!"

Shannon didn't have to turn around to know that Sayid was standing a few yards away, watching her splash in the water.

"No, not dictionaries!" she replied cheerfully "I'm just in a good mood this morning."

"I'm glad to hear it." Sayid said, a hint of a smile playing over his lips. "It's good that you aren't angry anymore, because I was hoping that you take a walk with me."

Shannon smiled. Sayid was the only one on the island who thought she was anything other than a pretty face, and she liked that. Him asking her to help translate the crazy woman's maps, if only because no one else could speak French, had made Shannon realize that who she was before didn't work on this island. She liked the new, helpful her and she wanted to let Sayid know it.

"Sure, I'd love to!"

Sayid beamed at her. Taking her hand, the two began to walk down the beach, watching the pink morning sun create dazzling reflections on the water.

**AN: **Okay, make me happy! R & R:)


	3. Love?

Chapter Three- Love?

Sayid led Shannon down the beach, away from the forest of tents full of sleeping people. They had been walking for about half an hour when Sayid spoke.

"You know, out of all the women on this island, you are the one who shows the most spirit."

Sayid stopped walking and pulled Shannon closer to him, circling her waist with his arms.

"Shannon, you are amazing. I really like you." His face came close to hers, and he brushed a soft kiss on her lips, stunning Shannon.

She looked up into his eyes and saw something she has never seen in any other man that she has kissed.

It was love. None of the guys she had ever dated had looked at her that way before. They had looked with lust, not love.

But Sayid was different. He loved her.

Shannon felt like she couldn't breathe. In that moment, she realized she knew absolutely nothing about love. She knew how to get a guy, how to undress in 3.1 seconds and how to apply make-up in the dark. But she knew nothing, _nothing_ about love.

"I gotta go bye!" she words came out in a rush. Shannon pulled away from him and scurried away back towards the camp.

Sayid watched her go, feeling hurt and confused.

**AN:** GASP! Shannon doesn't know about love? But she does know how to undress in 3.1 seconds! Hope someone found that as funny as I did when I wrote it! ;)


	4. Dictionaries Don't Lie

Chapter Four: Dictionaries Don't Lie

Shannon paced back and forth in her tent, beating herself up for leaving Sayid like that.

_"Damn it! He probably thinks I don't like him now!" _she thought miserably_ "Why do I know so little about love? I've certainly been with enough guys! I should have learned by now! How am I supposed to find out about love when I'm on this friggin' island?"_

Something gold caught her eye. It was the dictionary's cover; the letters were gleaming in the sunlight.

Shannon stopped pacing. An idea had come into her head. But no, that was stupid!

She eyed the leather-bound book. Well, it couldn't hurt.

Shannon bent and picked up the old dictionary. She started flipping through the L's, but then slammed the book shut.

"Oh my God, I can't believe I'm doing this!" she said in disbelief.

The blonde girl sat on the blanket that severed as a carpet in her tent. She placed the heavy book in her lap and reopened it. Shannon resumed to search. At last, she found it:

**_Love (noun)_**

_Strong affection_

_Attraction based on sexual desire_

_Unselfish and benevolent concern for others_

**_Love (verb)_**

_To feel a passion, devotion or tenderness for_

Shannon slowly closed the worn dictionary and stared at the cover.

"Jesus Christ, I can't believe I just did that."

After several moments, Shannon realized something: looking up some words in a stupid book isn't going to tell you about love. She already knew what love was, she just hadn't known it was love until now.

Love was when Shannon got butterflies when she saw Sayid smile. Love was when she would pretend not to know the meaning of one of the words on the French woman's map so she could spend extra time with him.

And yes, love was when she looked up a word in the dictionary because she was so desperate to understand her feelings about Sayid.

A bubble started to swell inside of Shannon. She had never felt this way before, like she could dance around singing sappy love songs till the end of time.

Shannon burst into a giggle fit.

"I love Sayid! I love Sayid!" she half sang, half whispered.

Suddenly, she stopped.

"Sayid!" she breathed "I've got to tell Sayid!"

With that, she jumped up off the blanket and ran out of her tent.


	5. Unspoken Apology

Chapter Five: Unspoken Apology

Shannon sprinted through the maze of tents, dodging people until she found him.

Sayid was sitting outside his tent, pouring over one of Danielle's maps.

"Sayid!" Shannon panted, skidding to a halt in front of him.

The former soldier looked up, surprised to see her. "Shannon?"

"Sayid, I need to talk to you."

He nodded. "I have something I wish to discuss with you as well." Sayid gestured to his tent "Perhaps we could talk more privately in here?"

"Yeah. Yeah that would be fine." Shannon said nervously.

Once inside the tent, Shannon had to fit the urge to bolt. She watched Sayid run a hand through his wild black hair. She couldn't do it! She couldn't tell him she loved him!

Sayid took a deep breath and began to speak "Shannon I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable earlier, it's just that-" before he could finish, he was cut off by Shannon's lips pressed on his.

They broke apart smiling.

_"I don't need a damn dictionary to tell me what love is." _Thought Shannon_ "It's here, right in front of me."_

**AN:** Well, there it is! My first Shayid fic! What did you guys think:)


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